Let Down Your Hair
by palomino333
Summary: Pre RE1. A late-night cleanup of Chris's desk leads to Jill becoming the fair damsel of a modern-day fairy tale.


This takes place before the original RE1, since Jill has long hair in that one. It was so fun to write this! I don't Resident Evil.

* * *

Jill Valentine smothered her yawn with a hand. She'd finally finished the report Wesker had wanted. Glancing over at the clock, she let out a groan. 11:45 p.m. The STARS unit had been punching the clock ever since the murders had begun, their captain not wanting to have to deal with any slack. That was why half of the team was out on the streets tonight. Thankfully, she'd dealt with the daytime patrol.

Tiredly, she got up from her desk, and headed over to that of her leader. The others who had dealt with the office portion of the job for tonight had gone home, save for her, since she just HAD to volunteer to take care of that report. Oh well, at least Brad owed her now.

The sound of the office's door abruptly opening cut sharply through her groggy mist, causing Valentine to jump, and whirl around.

"Oh, sorry Jill!" Chris Redfield called apologetically to her.

She had to turn to face the desk in order to hide her blush. "I thought you'd left?"

"I was going to, but then I remembered that I had some ballistics stuff I had to work on," Chris replied, his words half-concealed in a yawn.

Jill placed the file on the desk as Redfield headed over to his area of operations, his hands filled with papers.

Valentine started to feel her pulse speed up. She was well-awake now. Not only had she embarrassed herself, but she was also in the same room as her crush, with no one around. A chill shot through the building heat within her.

"Hey, you okay?" Chris asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, uh, you're kinda just standing in front of the captain's desk."

She felt ready to kick herself. "Oh, I'm just making sure this report is all together," Jill replied earnestly, moving the papers around a little to prove her point.

Chris was the only man who made her nervous. It was because he was...he was a sort of fairytale prince, corny as it sounded. Valentine couldn't count how many times she'd wanted to try to have a relationship with him. She remembered that silly fairy tale story about the princess with her hair on steroids. Rapunzel only got the guy when she let her hair down.

Jill felt her heart leap into her throat as she realized that this was the perfect opportunity to "let down her hair," so to speak. No one would be there to disapprove of, or disrupt, save for him, and if he did, what would happen?

"Chris?" She asked, looking up at him.

"Yeah?" He met her gaze from across what now seemed like a sea of desks.

"Do you need some help?"

He let out a chuckle as he looked down at the clutter that had now housed itself in his workspace. "Now that you mention it, I think I do."

Keeping her breath (and her pulse) somewhat steady, she joined him. "Sheesh, did you get caught in an avalanche?"

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, things...kinda got busy today."

Jill laughed. "I can tell Wesker on you, you know."

"Oh God, not that!" He put himself into a mock begging pose by getting down on one knee, clasping his hands together, and giving puppy dog eyes.

For a second, Valentine was overwhelmed by how cute he looked before catching herself. "Nah, it's not worth it."

He let out an exaggerated sigh of relief as he got up. "Salvation!"

As she shifted through the miscellaneous papers on the desk with its owner, Jill found it very hard to banish the image of his "begging" stance from her mind. Luckily, she was able to hide her facial expressions by a curtain of hair.

That was, until their hands came together.

It had been a pure accident. Jill had tossed a paper deemed useless by Chris into the now nearly overflowing wastebasket, and was reaching to inspect another without looking to see his hand reaching out for the very same one.

She felt a shiver course through her as she felt the cool leather palm of his much bigger gloved hand settle over her fingers, minute in proportion. Much to her surprise, the hand didn't move.

Brushing her hair out of her face with her free hand, Jill looked up to give her coworker a questioning look, but that fell away quickly as she saw his expression.

Redfield's face held an apologetic smile for brushing against her on it, but his eyes told otherwise. They were filled with a sort of intensity, showing a want in the mind behind them.

Valentine knew what that want was. Her heart leapt as she realized that it matched her own.

Chris' expression became questioning as moments passed without her pulling away.

Jill felt herself grin as she nodded, not caring about the blush that burned like a brand on her cheeks.

As the knight's lips touched those of the princess, she found pride well up inside of her at her brave choice to finally let down her hair.


End file.
